The reason I stagger through libraries,
causing the staff to shush me with
warning fingers to their lips, is because
of this:  I write poetry.  It wasn't always
this way.  Before, I was ... well, normal.
But since then, I've acquired a habit I can't
/don't want to quit:  I've gotten high
on poetry.
I must have it:  read it/memorize it/
re ci te it/(God forbid) write it
(although I'm a much better reader/
memorizer/re ci ter than a writer).
And so, I sit at the computer,
bravely entering poetry sites,
leaving postings of my own:  no one
laughs because of mispellings or
lack of rhyme or meter or because
I don't know how to write a sonnet ...
they encourage me and call me Poet.
And that's why I write poetry.

(c) 2006, Karla Dorman.